Family
by starangel25
Summary: Luke tries his hardest to be the the parent Jess is in need of.


**A/N- I know Luck/Jess stories are the not the most popular but I love to see Luke being all parental with Jess.**

It had been a long busy night for Luke, he was exhausted, he wondered where his nephew was off to, hoping he was not stirring up any trouble. As Luke was about to turned off the light and head upstairs, he saw Jess approaching the diner; he looked as if he stumbled a few times before he had reached for the door. Luke opened the door for Jess and looked at him over suspiciously as he inhaled the smell of cigarettes and an all too familiar scent of beer off his nephew.

"Have you been drinking?" Luke asked, confused as to where the kid could have gotten a hold of alchohol in this town.

Jess smirked at Luke's expression, he felt good now, better than he has felt in a long time, he now understood why his mom drank. Jess had made became instant friends with one of the largest trouble makers in school, his name is Lenny. Lenny and Jess spent the last 4 hours drinking and smoking, Lenny had reminded Jess of some of his old friends from New York, this kid was a badass, he really did not care for any rules, he was bent on breaking them all.

"No." Jess lied as he tried walk around his uncle but was stopped in his place when his uncle took a firm hold of his arm.

"Don't lie, we are going upstairs now and you are going to tell me exactly what you have been up to tonight." Luke said clearly annoyed with the boy's behavior.

"Lem-ee go." Jess said as he was led upstairs.

Once upstairs Luke dragged Jess over to the couch and practically threw the teen onto the couch.

"What the hell Lu-ke!" Jess yelled as tried to get up from the couch, but was only pushed back down by Luke.

"Tell me everything you did tonight now." Luke grudged out as he stood towering over Jess.

"Nothing m-uch, to-ok a stroll down the stre-ets of Stars Holl-ow and abso-rbed the pleasant atmo-sphere." Jess slurred sarcastically.

"You are drunk! And reek of cigarettes, didn't I tell you to quit that! You just got yourself grounded, now get ready for bed." Luke sternly said.

"No-" Jess started to argue but was quickly cut off by Luke as he was forcefully pulled up. "Get ready for bed!" Luke said as he turned Jess toward the bathroom then swatted Jess's bottom forcefully to get him moving toward the bathroom. "Now!" Luke said after he laid the fierce swat.

That swat stung Jess, he had to hold back the yelp behind his teeth; he hated his uncle treating him like a child. Jess did as told, seeing his uncle meant business.

Jess quickly took a shower and dressed in a white t-shirt and grey sweat pants, he was tired and plus the alchohol, once his head hit his pillow he was off to sleep.

Jess awoke the next morning with a banging headache, he was hung-over he hadn't felt this way since he was back in New York.

Luke set some breakfast along with two aspirins and a cup of water on their small counter. "Get over here." Luke told Jess from the counter. Jess looked over and saw the food and really did not feel up to eating. "I'm not hungry." Jess said miserably. Luke was done wasting his breath so he went over and pulled Jess up from his bed himself and quickly had the teen planted on a stool before his breakfast in no time.

"Drink that, it'll help." Luke said as he motioned to the aspirin next to the cup of water. Jess downed the pills in hopes that the pain would disappear.

"Eat before it gets cold." Luke then said.

"I said-" Jess started off but was cut out by his uncle's too loud response." I didn't ask, I'm telling you now eat!"

Jess was not up to arguing right now so he unwillingly did as told.

I was an average Sunday day for Luke at the diner; he had Jess help out some when it started to get busy. Sometime mid day Luke noticed a smug looking kid enter the diner wearing a leather jacket, he saw the kid look directly at Jess and smile.

Jess noticed Lenny and before he had the chance to avoid him so his uncle would not know he knew him Lenny called out to Jess. "Can't believe you work at this lame ass diner dude!"

"It's not by choice, my uncle owns the joint." Jess said.

"Sucks man that you have to work here, any plans tonight?" Lenny asked.

"I'm stuck here till who knows when since I got grounded last night." Jess said.

"Sucks to be you man, see you tomorrow at school." Lenny said as he made his way out of the diner.

"Later man." Jess said.

Luke approached Jess and asked "Who's your new friend?"

Jess gave his uncle a glare and ignored him and walked passed him, he got a hold of the coffee pot and refilled cups for customer's that were in need of it.

Later on after the diner was closed Luke grabbed himself a beer and was about to watch a football game before he decided to send Jess off to bed a bit earlier than usual.

"Get to bed." Luke said.

"What, it's still early-" Jess said.

"Consider it your new bedtime this week, now get to bed now." Luke sternly said.

"I'm not sleepy." Jess said.

"Too bad, get to sleep now." Luke said as he took a few intimidating steps towards Jess.

The look Luke gave Jess made Jess gulp his pride down and back down and do as asked, he was furious, but he knew that look, many of Liz's boyfriends had given him that look before, before they gave him a severe beating, he had school the next day, the last thing he wanted was to go to school with bruises. This was the first time he was scared of Luke. Jess put on his rock music a little louder than usual, but the noise level was short lived until Luke went over angrily and lowered it. Jess tried to get lost to sleep but his mind kept speeding with thoughts of his past and now his present, he was starting to worry maybe Luke was just like all those other men that Liz had trusted with him.

Later on in the night once Luke had headed off to sleep himself, he was woken up by a strangled yell. Luke quickly rose from his bed and checked on Jess and found the boy sitting up on his bed looking frightened. Jess was indeed frightened he felt his heart pounding hard against his chest as if he just ran a marathon and his breathing was faster than usual, and he had unwanted tears streaming down his eyes. He hasn't had a nightmare as bad as the one he had just had in such a long time it felt so odd to him and downright embarrassed him for his uncle to see him so distraught.

"Are you okay?" Luke said as he got closer to Jess. The boy had his head bowed down trying desperately to hide his face from his uncle, Jess nodded with his head bowed down.

Luke noticed Jess's chest inhaling and exhaling faster than usual. Luke saw that Jess was scared, so he sat next to his nephew and got a hold of his nephew's chin gently and raised it to get a good look at the boy, he saw Jess was crying and obviously scared, he reached forward and gave Jess a secure hug. Jess felt mortified, too much like a small child now, he hated it, he tried to get his emotions in control but once his uncle wrapped his arms around him, he felt safe, for the first time in a long time in someone's embrace, as much as he didn't want to, Jess enjoyed it and was surprised by it.

"It's okay..your safe here." Luke murmured. Once Jess calmed down enough and composed himself he pulled away clearly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry I woke you." Jess softly said looking down.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, want to talk about it?" Luke said gently.

"No, I'm going back to sleep." Jess said as he slid back down onto his bed and turned away from his uncle.

"Okay..Goodnight." Luke said as he made it back to his bed.

The morning arrived too soon for Jess, it had taken him awhile to fall back to sleep after his bad nightmare.

"Good morning! Rise and shine!" Luke said as he playfully swatted Jess on the behind.

"Uncle Luke! Give me five more minutes!" Jess whined, not wanting to get up just yet.

"I've already given you 10 minutes, now get up, shower and get dressed; I don't want you to be late for school, meet me downstairs once you are done." Luke said as he finished buttoning his plaid shirt.

Jess slowly got up and got ready for the day and met his uncle downstairs, Luke had a plate of breakfast and a cup of juice ready for Jess, Jess ate timidly while Luke would give him a worried glance once and a while. Once Jess was done with his breakfast, Luke grabbed his keys and told Jess. "Let's start getting going."

"I'm going to walk." Jess quickly said as he got a hold of his books.

"I'm taking you and picking you up." Luke said as he walked toward Jess.

"No, I'm walking." Jess said as he made a quick turn toward the door and Luke followed close enough and took a hold of one of Jess's arms and stirred him toward the direction of his truck.

"Why are you being like this" Jess said outraged at the way his uncle was treating him.

"I know you have been skipping recently, this is my way in making sure you don't, I will make sure you get to school and get home safely from now on." Luke said as they drove off.

"Yea right as if I can't still skip." Jess mumbled.

"What was that?" Luke asked.

Jess didn't answer he was relieved to see the school coming up, once his uncle completely put a stop to the truck he quickly jump out of the truck so fast Luke was not even able to finish telling him to have a good day.

Jess hated this high school in this boring small town; he hated Liz for shipping him over to live with his uncle. Jess's school day didn't pass as fast as he had hoped.

At lunch Lenny tried convincing Jess for a couple of minutes to take a much needed smoke break in the boy's bathroom. Jess agreed that a quick smoke sounded good; so he and Lenny started to take a few drags before someone entered the bathroom, much to their surprise it was Mr. Andrews, a science teacher. Both boys were escorted to the principle's office, lectured and guardians were called. Both boys were suspended for two days.

Luke was surprised at first then furious the next, he had no idea how to get through to Jess. Luke's anger showed on his face once he entered the high school and made his way to the school office, he saw Jess sitting sullenly outside the principles office; he entered the office without acknowledging the kid's presence. The principle gave Luke an earful about Jess's bad behavior and how she won't tolerate it any longer in her school and informed Luke on how Jess was suspended for the next two days

.

Before he knew it Luke stalked out the office and walked past him while he sternly said. "Let's go."

Jess quietly followed, he noticed just how angry his uncle was just by the way Luke the steering wheel in a death grip. The car ride was silent and the silence continued as they made there way in the diner and up the stairs. The silence was broken once Luke's strong palm made contact with Jess's jean clad bottom three times loud and hard causing Jess to stumble forward a little, while yelping in pain. Jess quickly turned to face his uncle, red faced and angry while trying to rub the sting out of his bottom.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Luke demanded loudly before Jess had a chance to protest.

"You are not my father! You can't treat me like this! Stop playing the angry daddy card!" Jess yelled hotly.

"I'm your uncle and the closet thing you got to a father right now so deal with it! I am not going to sit by and let you run wild like you did in New York, you have rules that you need to follow; I already have made it clear to you what they are! So if you choose not to follow them then you will face the consequences to your actions." Luke said.

"It was not my choice to come here! I thought you were different, I didn't think you were such a prick! I'm out of here! I hate it here! You won't have to worry about me breaking your precious rules any longer!" Jess said as he stalked toward his stuff and started gathering them together.

Luke was taken aback for a few seconds but quickly recuperated as he said sternly "You are not going anywhere."

"Yeah right." Jess said comically.

"I mean it Jess, just try it and see where it will land you; this is your home now and always will be, I'm not giving up on you ever." Luke said.

"I don't need you! I can take care of myself; I was doing fine before you!" Jess said.

"I don't think you were, you just did whatever you wanted never afraid of the consequences, you were just a brat and still are, you lack discipline and I'll be the man to provide it for you." Luke said.

"Fuck you! You're just a man with a stick up his ass." Jess said.

"Jess! I better not hear another curse word out of your mouth again or I will personally wash that filthy mouth of yours out with soap in our bathroom." Luke said.

Jess's face redden at the threat his uncle looked too capable of doing. He angrily yelled. "I can say and do as I please." He made sure not to let a curse word slip out his mouth.

"Not anymore, you will do as I say plain and simple." Luke said as he crossed his arms and glared at Jess.

Jess continued to put his stuff together, he was ready to go, he hated how his uncle was treating him, his uncle treated him like a small child. "I'm leaving." Jess said.

"No you are not, the only place you are going to right now is to this couch; you and I need to have a talk." Luke simply said as he pointed to the couch.

Jess was so fed up with his uncle trying to control him; he was more than ready to leave right then and there. Luke walked over to Jess and took a firm grip of the boy's arm and led him to the couch, ignoring the boy's protests, he then not too gently deposited Jess onto the couch.

Luke glared hard down at Jess before he spoke. "You are my responsibility now and will be until you graduate high school, for the next two years, I expect you to be respectful towards me and others, follow your rules, as long as you behave as I expect you to, we won't have any problems, I love you Jess, you are a really bright kid, you just need the right guidance..one of your rules is no smoking, but you still went ahead and smoked today and on school property, since you are suspended for the next two days you are going to finish a list of chores and will be grounded for another week."

Jess was fuming, he already had made up his mind that he was gong to leave, but decided to do it when his uncle was out of sight.

"I'm sorry." Jess said sullenly only so his uncle would leave him alone.

Luke was surprised with the sudden behavior change; he assumed it was just Jess being a teenager.

"That's a good start; come downstairs there's a few things I want you to organize." Luke said.

Once downstairs Luke kept Jess busy finding misc things for him to do in the diner until closing.

Jess took his chance while his uncle went to shower and got a hold of his uncle's keys to his truck and gathered his belongings and made a run for it.

**TBC**

**A/N PLEASE REVIEW! AND GIVE ME IDEAS IF YOU HAVE ANY TOWARDS THE DIRECTION YOU WANT THIS STORY TO HEAD.**


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